Bathurst Panthers upset 18-16 by rivals St Pat's in Western Under 18s preliminary final

Panthers couldn't find the late try they needed to get past cross-city rivals St Pat's in their preliminary final clash at Forbes' Spooner Oval, going down 18-16 to a team they'd beaten convincingly twice during the regular season.

Favouritism lied heavily with the Panthers after they'd finished the regular season as Group 10 premiers and then played an excellent match in the opening week of finals to see off Forbes Magpies 24-8.

But that level of football was bereft from the match against their rivals, where a mix of risky decisions and poor ball security came back to haunt the side.

Coach Mick Carter said it wasn't the most memorable of days for his side though he doesn't want it to take the gloss of what has been a year of great promise for the club's up-and-coming stars.

"That's footy. Pat's turned up ready to play and they certainly wanted it more. I don't we had much respect for the footy. We had 15 turnovers and gave up a lot of penalties," he said.

"They never really got going at all. We were running into a decent wind in the first half and at half-time, just 12-10 down, I thought we had a good 12 to 18 point wind at our backs, but credit goes to Pat's.

"Our game against Forbes was near perfect so to produce that in a big game is disappointing, but that's footy. When it comes to semi-finals if you turn up on the day then anyone can win it.

"My boys had a great year as it was. They were up the ladder for pretty much the whole season. Whether that took its toll or not that's no excuse, and Pat's were certainly the better team on the day."

The silver lining for Panthers was their big haul of prizes from the recent Group 10 awards night.

Skipper and halfback Jackson Carter was a joint winner of the under 18s player of the year prize, alongside St Pat's big man Aiden Stait.

Tommy Lemmich was the rookie of the year recipient and Haydn Edwards comfortably won the leading try scorer award with a haul of 25 across the season.

Even more impressively Edwards was a joint winner for the most points scored over the course of the sharing, sharing the prize with Cowra's Micky Mcnamara who found 80 of his 100 points through goals.

Mick Carter was also named coach of the year.

"Hats off to Group 10 for recognising those awards. Given that we'd followed suit with the seniors and moved into a combined Western competition we didn't expect awards for us to go ahead," Carter said.

"It was great for Jackson to be an equal winner of player of the year with AJ, Tommy getting rookie of the year and massive for Haydn to be not only highest try scorer of the year but also top point scorer without being a goalkicker.

"Those boys had a fantastic season and they should walk around with their heads held high. They've done their family, friends and supporters proud. They'll grow from this experience."

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